An Old Fashioned syrup is supposed to do one job: hold the sweetness and the bitters so you can pour whiskey and drink. Most of them get part of it right and part of it wrong. Here's what to look for in an Old Fashioned syrup, what to skip, and why the packet format changes the math.
The category is crowded and the labels all sound the same. A little reading tells you which syrup earns a spot on your shelf and which one is sugar water with a nice font.
What a good Old Fashioned syrup actually contains
The base is sweetness, and the kind matters. Plain simple syrup is just sugar and water, and a lot of budget mixers stop there. A good Old Fashioned syrup layers its sweeteners for depth. Still Branch uses dark brown sugar for the backbone, with sorghum and maple behind it, which is where the richness comes from.
Bitters are the next thing to check. Many syrups leave them out entirely and tell you to add your own, which defeats the point of a mixer. A complete Old Fashioned syrup carries the bitters already, so you pour whiskey and stop. Still Branch folds in two bitters plus Italian Amarena cherry and a touch of orange, so the whole flavor is in the pour.
Balance is the last test, and the hardest to fake. A good syrup tastes of whiskey first once you add the spirit, with the sweetness in support. If a syrup makes the drink taste like candy on its own, it'll bury your bourbon in the glass.
The problem with a bottle of Old Fashioned syrup
Bottled syrup is the classic format, and it has a real weakness: once you open it, it lives in the fridge and takes up space, and it starts a slow clock. You're rationing a bottle you opened for one drink. For people who make an Old Fashioned once or twice a week, half the bottle is gone to time before it's gone to drinks.
Portion control is the other issue. Free-pouring from a bottle means every drink is a guess, and a bottled syrup is easy to overpour. One heavy night and the drink tips sweet. A single-serve format fixes both: the right amount every time, and nothing open in the fridge counting down.
Old Fashioned syrup in a packet, the format shift
Still Branch is an Old Fashioned syrup in a single-serve packet, fourteen to a box, no refrigeration. Each packet is one perfectly portioned drink. You tear it open, pour it over one big cube, add two ounces of bourbon or rye, and stir.
That format solves the two bottle problems at once. There's no half-used bottle aging in the fridge, and there's no free-pour guesswork, because the syrup is measured for you. It also travels, which no bottle does well. The same box that lives in your kitchen drawer fits a suitcase or a cooler.
And the quality holds up to the format. The liquid in the packet won SIP Awards Platinum 2024 and Double Gold 2023, judged blind against drinks built behind bars, so a convenient syrup doesn't mean a lesser one. You get a bar-quality drink, portioned right, ready to travel, from a craft producer in Portland, Oregon. Grab a box, keep it in the drawer, and the next Old Fashioned syrup you reach for is already measured. Pour your whiskey and drink.
Old Fashioned syrup versus doing it all by hand
The other option is to skip syrup and build from raw parts: a sugar cube, a bottle of bitters, a knife for the orange. It works, and some people love the ritual. For everyone else, it's four minutes and a small pile of dishes for one drink. A good Old Fashioned syrup collapses that into one pour, which is the entire point of buying one.
The catch with most syrups is they only do half the job. They handle the sweetness and leave you to add bitters and cherry yourself, so you're halfway back to the raw build. A complete Old Fashioned syrup carries all of it, which is the bar Still Branch sets: sweeteners, two bitters, Italian Amarena cherry, and orange in a single pour.
How to store and use an Old Fashioned syrup
Storage is where the format really shows. A bottled Old Fashioned syrup lives in the fridge once opened and is best inside a few weeks. Miss that window and the flavor flattens, so heavy pours and fast use are almost forced on you. That's a strange way to drink a cocktail you're supposed to savor.
Single-serve fixes the whole problem. Each Still Branch packet is sealed and shelf-stable, so your Old Fashioned syrup keeps at full strength until the night you tear it open, whether that's tomorrow or six months out. Keep a box in the kitchen and a few packets in a bag, and the syrup is ready whenever the moment is, portioned right, with a bar-quality drink on the other side of a thirty-second stir.
Sugar matters more than you think
The sweetener is where cheap syrups cut corners hardest. Plain white sugar dissolved in water is fast and flavorless, and it makes a drink that tastes one-note sweet. The better move is depth: brown sugar for molasses richness, sorghum for an earthy backbone, maple for roundness. Those are the sweeteners Still Branch layers, and you can taste the difference against a bar-well pour that's just sugar.
Sweetness also has to be in proportion. Too much of it and the whiskey disappears under candy. The right amount lets the spirit lead and the sugar support. That balance is the hardest thing to nail by hand and the easiest thing to buy already solved, which is the whole reason a well-built packet is worth keeping in the drawer.
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